


Collections

by Jinsai_ish



Category: Pet Shop of Horrors
Genre: F/M, Gen, M/M, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:14:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27283252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jinsai_ish/pseuds/Jinsai_ish
Summary: As the title may indicate, this is an old collection of drabble challenge responses.  There is a variety of ficlet with various themes and focuses.  Only one is truly R-rated.  Most are gen or Count D and Leon.  The Chief is also featured in several.
Relationships: Count D/Leon Orcot
Kudos: 5





	1. Chapter 1

**Title: Imprisoning the Elements  
Rating: G  
Word Count: 100  
Pairings/charecters: DxLeon  
Notes: Response to challenge #6 (elements).**  
  
  
You can pick up earth, hold it in your hands. You can shape it, toss it into a box. But the wind will flow through your fingers, laughing at you. Water flows, but it will hold shape in a container. It can be imprisoned, remaining water. But fire…  
  
Only one of two things can happen to fire enclosed in a box. It will die out, smothered for lack of nourishment. Or it will burn down the sides of the box, flickering merrily at your futile attempts to catch it.  
  
There are days when D can’t stand to look at Leon.  
  
**Title: Of Lizards and Rats, Mirrors and Hooks  
Rating: PG  
Word count: 100  
Pairings/characters involved: Robin Hendrix, Medusa, Despair  
Notes: Cross-over with the Sandman, response to challenge 7, bystander pov.**  
  
She looks at her mirrors, the rats scrabbling around her feet. Ah, there. Platinum blonde hair, blue eyes. Rich, handsome, talented, and utterly apathetic save for his reptiles. Drowning in the shadow of the prince, Robin Hendrix is one of her favorites.  
  
A new development, that lovely young lizard. She sees Robin creeping out of the frame of the mirror, step by dreamy step. Digging her hook into her cheek, she nearly smiles. The rats scamper in fear.  
  
Nice try little god.  
  
Despair is patient.  
  
When Robin looks into Medusa’s eyes, he almost misses the hook behind the prince. Almost.  
  
**Title: The Price  
Rating: G  
Word count: 100  
Pairings or characters involved: the Chief, implied Leon/D  
Notes: response to 8 "Beneath the Mask." I wanted to focus on the chief, wondering what his job costs him. Rather understated I think, but please let me now whatyou think.**  
  
Wrenching open his door, the chief gestured for the ranting detective to take his leave.  
  
“Out! Leon, it’s Valentine’s Day. All the criminals are off romancing their mistresses. Why don’t you take off a bit early? I’m sure you can think of somewhere to go.”  
  
Leon blustered a bit, a faint red tingeing his cheeks. But he grabbed his coat as he did so, brushing past a winking Jill. The chief humphed.  
  
“Finally, some peace and quiet!”  
  
Left alone in his office, the chief twisted the gold ring on his left hand and stared at a phone that wouldn’t ring.  
  
  
**Title: Einstein's Truth  
Rating: G/PG  
Word count: 100 (not including quote)  
Pairings or characters involved: D/Leon  
Notes: This one was a pain to cut down to 100 words but it's done. Response to challenge 10 on the theme of time. Inspired by raison d'etat's wonderful fic "Unwilling Sleep" and the following passage from "Properties of the Light" by Rebecca Goldstein.**  
  
_The passage of time is nothing real. It is a chimera spun out of gauzy consciousness, and nothing more, a frightful apparition tossed up by our mixed-up minds. We know this from Einstein's physics, which shows us a time as stilled as spread space. Time is static, the flow unreal: it is Einstein's truth, and it is the truth, falling straight away from the conditions of perfect symmetry imposed on the geometry. The ebb, which seems so terrible and real, which seems to carry off one's every treasure, leaving one like a chest spilled open on the waves: unreal, unreal._  
  
“Einstein’s Truth”  
  
At forty-five, calluses have long since formed on once-smooth palms. This is the choice he made.  
  
The aroma of hothouse flowers manages to cover the hospital smell, signs of the respect the officers at the precinct held for their chief of ten years. Leon’s resting now, the bullet that had tore through his chest no longer paining him. Eyes shut, D rests his head above a stilling heart. Somewhere he knows that he is pouring tea for a loud-mouthed, loving detective. As Leon drifts away, into past and future, D knows that this time, it is his turn to search.  
  
"The distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion. (Albert Einstein, shortly before his death)  
  
  
**Title: Sakura  
Rating: G  
Word count: 100  
Pairings/characters: D/Leon (implied)  
Notes: Reply to challenge 12 (seasons). Post-series, with D in Tokyo ala Nemuki special. Inspired by the latest "Flowers and the Detective" from volume 6.**  
  
  
It is summer in Tokyo and past-time for some rigorous spring-cleaning. D assigns tools and tasks, arming himself with a duster.  
  
The denizens of the pet shop are winning against dust and dirt when D stumbles upon a box stashed in the corner of his room. Within lay the gifts his grandfather sent from his own visit to Japan: the rake, the fan – and the kimono. D reaches for it, his hand unsteady. Suddenly chilled, he wraps himself in the kimono, trying not to remember widened blue eyes and blossoms falling to the ground in rushes of color and scent.  
  
  
**Title: Just Another Part of the Job  
Rating: PG  
Word count: 100  
Pairings/characters: The Chief (anyone know his name?), Leon  
Notes: response to challenge 13, waiting. Just a bit of fun at Leon's expense.**  
  
  
Fingers the color of rich chocolate milk tapped impatiently on the desk. The hollow thuds landed in counter rhythm to the ticking of the clock. The chief scowled at a stack of files, then back at the time piece. Ten more minutes. If those reports weren’t in his hands by then he swore he’d – The phone rang, interrupting his mental threat.  
  
Nine minutes and twenty-one seconds later a panting Leon burst in the door, shoving a large folder at the chief.  
  
Orcot was a damn good detective, but he was the absolute worst when it came to completing his paperwork!  
  
  
**Title: Statistics  
Rating: PG  
Word count: 140 (sorry!)  
Pairings/characters: the Chief, Leon (implied D/Leon)  
Notes: Response (albeit too long) to challenge 14, numbers. Takes place right after the first "Flowers and the Detective" story.**  
  
  
Yesterday they had posted the annual report for the 14th precinct: 1,038 cases of robbery, 69 rapes, 700 vehicle thefts, 1,065 aggravated assaults, and 19 homicides. That wasn’t counting the officer who had lost his life in the line of duty.  
  
“Dammit Leon…”  
  
“Chief?” Awakening for the second time, Leon’s bleary vision picked out the chief’s face, focusing on his eyes, red and dry as the Martian surface. As red as the petals from -  
  
“Gattolotto...” Leon winced in pain. “Where’s D?”  
  
“I made him go home; he was here all night.  
  
“We caught the dealers. You’ll probably get a promotion out of this. But don’t think this means you’re not an idiot for getting shot.”  
  
But the chief smiled. Last night they hadn’t known if Leon was going to make it. And he had already attended one funeral too many.  
  
  
  
_Long I know. But I did research! lapdonline.org and<http://www.losangelesalmanac.com/topics/Crime/cr03ea.htm>  
I'm assuming the 14th to be under Central of Central Bureau as they service Chinatown, among other areas. And anyone else notice that before getting shot Leon is "Officer" and "Detective" after? Maybe just a translation error but it worked. *shrug*_  
  
  
**Title: Selling Vinyl Siding  
Rating: PG  
Word count: 100  
Pairings/characters: Leon, Sofu (implied D/Leon)  
Notes: Response to challenge 16, family.**  
  
“Selling Vinyl Siding”  
  
Since meeting D, Leon had suffered a lot of weird-ass dreams. Man-eating rabbits, and all that crap. But that last one had really taken the cake.  
  
“If you leave my grandson alone, I’ll give you anything you want.”  
  
Leon had recognized the man, nearly a mirror-image of D, save his eyes matched and lacked the glimmer that always hovered in his D’s.  
  
He had said this out-loud and D’s creepy grandfather glared.  
  
“What is it you want? Riches, power, immortality? Never see him again and I’ll give you an immortal life!”  
  
Leon had never laughed so hard in his life.  
  
  
**Title: Father's Day  
Rating: G  
Word count: 100  
Pairings/characters: D/Leon  
Notes: Response 2 to challenge 16, family.**  
  
“Father’s Day”  
  
Leon only spoke of his father once and he held very still while he did so. His lips moved, but the shadowy blue eyes blinked slowly, the rise and fall of his chest barely discernable. D gently pried the tea cup from his fingers and refilled it, his hand lingering over the Detective’s as he returned it.  
  
D never spoke of his father. But sometime at night, when the darkness seeped from the corners of his room to surround, he’d tremble slightly. That’s when Leon would hold him, clutching D tightly and mumbling soothing words that had no real meaning.  
  
  
**Title: Odile's Spring  
Rating: G  
Word count: 100  
Pairings/characters: Jeanne La Croix (from vol. 5, Dance)  
Notes: Response to challenge 17, cold. I would have to say that of all Count D's one-shot customers, Jeanne and her story "Dance" are my favorite. :)**  
  
"Odile's Spring"  
  
March in St. Petersburg is cold in a way that L.A. could never understand. Jeanne clutches the freshly-made bread close to her chest, the warmth soaking through her gloves to chilled fingers. Her parka is thick enough but still she envies the thick fur of the husky that runs past, chased after by laughing children. Jeanne smiles, loving the sound of the language, the thick accent that warms her ears. Her leg muscles loosen and her feet begin sweeping gracefully over the frozen ground. In Russia, Jeanne La Croix dances amid a flurry of snow, falling softer than swan’s down.  
  
  
**Title: "A Token of my Esteem"  
Rating: PG  
Word count: 100  
Pairings/characters: Leon/OC, implied D/Leon  
Notes: With D gone, someone had to try and pick up the pieces. Post-series. (#31, token)**  
  
  
It was raining the night she met Leon. Drunk as he was, he held the umbrella steady as they walked to her apartment. Sometimes, when she was too caught up in a client’s portfolio, he’d bring coffee and donuts. They were the only sweets he could stomach. He never talked after sex. They never made love. When she told him the company offered her a prestigious job in Tokyo, he shrugged. She left him the apartment.  
  
She recognized him the second she entered the pet store. She strode out, fighting back tears, a red palm print marring D’s perfect complexion.  
  
  
**Title: "And a Pocketful of Raindrops"  
Rating: G  
Word count: 100  
Pairings/characters: D, Leon, Chris (implied D/Leon)  
Notes: Reply to challenge 33, dance.**  
  
  
“And a Pocketful of Raindrops”  
  
Walking out of the restaurant, Count D, Leon, and Chris strode directly into the downpour. Puddles dotted the sidewalks and a heavy, slow rain was falling. Chris seized the moment to puddle-jump, soaking the Count and his brother in the process.  
  
“Christopher!” D glared at him, brandishing an armful of wet silk.  
  
“Aw Count, live a little!” Leon joined Chris, swinging him around in an odd little jig.  
  
“Detective! If you must dance, at least show him how to do it properly.”  
  
Brushing droplets out of his hair, Chris gaped at a bewildered Leon, roped into waltzing in the rain.  
  
  
**Title: Trick or Treat?  
Rating: R  
Word count: 165  
Pairings/characters: T-chan/surprise  
Notes: #35 -Trick-or-treat. A new pairing for me. Let's see how it goes.**  
  
  
"Trick or Treat?"  
  
Tetsu thrust hard into the pliant body beneath him. Finally the Count had seen the light. Sure, it was a bit sudden and completely out of the blue, but the toutetsu wasn’t about to protest. Not with the writhing body beneath him, the long nails digging into his back. He growled at the scent of his own blood, moving faster and deeper. As the Count arched up his back Tetsu leaned down and licked the sweat droplets off of one blushed nipple. The Count tasted of fresh peaches and cinnamon spice. At climax two cries echoed in the room – a loud howl and a shrill scream.  
  
The toutetsu allowed his lower body to rest against that of his lover. Slowing his breath, he meet the Count’s mismatched eyes, only to stare in shock as black hair grew and shaded into red. A pair of sly golden eyes glittered up at him – a fox’s eyes.  
  
Ten-chan leaned up and nipped the frozen man-eater’s nose. “Trick-or-treat T-chan.”  
  
  
**Title: Kindred  
Rating: PG  
Word count: 100  
Pairings/characters: the Chief, Leon, Jill, other  
Notes: Challenge #36, instinct**  
  
  
“Kindred”  
  
Leon depends on his instincts while Jill prefers research. He’s hotheaded, she’s too trusting. Ted’s a joker, Marianne’s a cynic, Phil’s always late. But they’re all good cops. All the men and women who serve under him are. The chief won’t tolerate a dirty cop, or a lousy one. If that keeps him from the coveted promotion to commissioner, so be it.  
  
As long as officers like Orcot and the others are on the force, he knows he’s not the only one kept up late at night by the dead’s silence, names slipping from his lips in a broken mantra.  
  
  



	2. Collections Continue

**Title: Irony  
Rating: G  
Word count: 100  
Pairings/characters: D, other  
Notes: #37: Broken. Takes place a number of years after the end of the manga. I like the name Daniel.**  
  
  
“Irony”  
  
Fifty years have passed since D’s been in L.A. That’s why he stares at the cop who smirks at him as if not a day has gone by.  
  
“Leon?”  
  
“Detective Daniel Orcot. Leon was my father’s name.”  
  
Underneath D, the ground becomes unstable.  
  
“You must be Count D. Dad used to tell stories about you.”  
  
“Where is your father now?”  
  
On the way to the cemetery D hears about life. He hears about tragedies, challenges, victories, and a house filled with laughter and smiles. At the grave his knees give out. He’d thought Leon would be the one to break.  
  
  
  
 **Title: "So It's Not All Raindrops on Roses..."  
Rating: G  
Word count: 130  
Pairings/characters: the Chief, his family, two hamsters(+), and others  
Notes: Challenge 39: Thanksgiving. Life is hetic, and vomit smells nothing like roses. But sometimes we only need a moment.**  
  
  
  
"So It's Not All Raindrops on Roses..."  
  
Elijah started throwing up at 9 that morning. After some medicine, he was parked on the couch with the playstation and a stack of dvds. Jason had spent all last night griping about the paper his teacher has assigned over break. Keshon had gotten a hamster for his 5th birthday and, afraid it would be lonely, had slipped it into the cage with his mother’s. Now they were expecting a Christmas gift of several tiny hamsters. The last thing the Chief needed on his day off was a call from the precinct.  
  
“Hey Chief!” Leon shouted into the phone. “Listen up!”  
  
“Happy Thanksgiving!” The voices of the entire squad chorused over the line. Their chief chuckled as he hung up, each of his blessings burning into his mind like stars.  
  
  
  
 **Title: "Christmas Preparations"  
Rating: G  
Word count: 437 -- way over the word count this time. But it may have been necessary to tell the story I wanted. We'll see.  
Pairings/characters: Sofu D, Papa D, an innkeeper  
Notes: Challenge #41: Christmas preparations. In my mind it takes place sometime before D's birth. The idea just hit me as soon as I read the challenge, but it took some time to work out the details. Please enjoy!**  
  
  
  
“Christmas Preparations”  
  
The desert air did little to cool the patrons who sat in the inn. But the two foreign cattle traders, with their pale skin and strange eyes, seemed unaffected. Despite this, one groused non-stop in his native language. The words themselves had sounded lyrical but his tone and the disdain he wore across the bridge of his nose made his feelings plain. The one with irises the color of coin was apparently the elder - though how one could tell the innkeeper didn’t know. But he seemed to have some authority over the other and made the claim to have traveled a great distance on some sort of business. What sort was anyone’s guess as the only business anyone had seen him conduct was the sale of some sheep to a couple of the local shepherds and an ass to a merchant from Nazareth. In the end however, the innkeeper was a business man and if nothing else the fine clothes and bearing of the two men indicated breeding and wealth.  
  
“Sirs! Be at ease! You are in the city of the great king and the recipient of all the hospitality we can offer.” The innkeeper cajoled the two foreigners, gesturing a small girl forward. Her eyes were deep and dark as mahogany. “Drink deeply. This water comes from the very same well brought forth by the prophet himself!” His daughter poured carefully into the elder’s cup. When she was done she whispered into his ear.  
  
“I added a spoonful of honey. It makes the water sweeter.”  
  
After the two had departed, the violet-eyed one scoffed.  
  
“These desert nomads and their prophets. Father, if we remain here much, I fear I shall go as mad as they are!”  
  
Sofu merely smiled and sipped his water.  
  
That night an uncommonly strong wind rose up. Morning found the innkeeper’s wife distraught over the remains of a large myrtle that her great, great grandfather had planted to shade his new bride. The golden-eyed man gave the tree a long look as he stood by the innkeeper, as the man tried to comfort the grieving woman.  
  
“You should make good use of the wood. A jewelry box, a new chair. Perhaps a feeding trough for the animals with what’s left-over.” That same evening the two men departed. The younger seemed happy only to return homewards but the elder gave the innkeeper his best bull and his best cow as payment. To his daughter he gave only two dove-white eggs and a wink. She waved as she watched them depart under a star that seemed to grow brighter with every passing night.


	3. Collections Continue

**Title: "If I Meet You Again"  
Rating: G  
Word count: 100  
Pairings/characters: Philippe, Chris (slashy or non depending on how one squints)  
Notes: Challenge 42: rain.**  
  
  
“If I Meet You Again”  
  
Chris was fifteen when he returned. His bare feet retraced the way to Philippe’s beach as they too were drawn as the waves are by the moon. When his toes met the sand, he was greeted not with the constant sun he remembered but with grey sodden skies, dark water, and a heavy rainfall.  
  
Philippe had grown also, taller and well-toned, but his eyes hadn’t changed. They were still ancient, still young, still over-flowing with laughter at some secret joke. Chris stammered over his question. Philippe only laughed and dragged him deeper into the water.  
  
“It has to rain sometime.”  
  
  
 **Title: "Showdown"  
Rating: PG  
Word count: 100  
Pairing/characters: Leon, D  
Notes: Challenge #50 - never.**  
  
“Showdown”  
  
Leon knows about duty.  
  
When he swore the oath at graduation from the academy he didn’t understand what it meant. Back then, he didn’t understand what it could cost. Not really.  
  
He does now.  
  
He didn’t know then that sometimes it can cost more than you can bear. But you bear it. Somehow you bear it. Because…  
  
He has become familiar with the sacrifices. He has become intimate with the sacrifices.  
  
“To protect and to serve.”  
  
Because someone has to.  
  
He didn’t realize that D also knew a thing or two about duty.  
  
He never thought it’d come to this.  
  
  
  
 **Title: Blindfolds  
Rating: PG-13  
Word count: 100  
Pairing/Characters: D, Leon  
Notes: Response to challenge #170, Justice**  
  
  
  
Humans, alone among animals, have the concept of justice.  
  
He used to find that amusing, handing humanity’s own conceit down to them. But the biting words and humor are lost to him when Leon finally speaks.  
  
“They let him walk. Bastard murders two little girls and the fucking courts let him walk. Worst part of it is that I had him at the arrest. No witnesses, finger on the trigger…”  
  
“Why didn’t you shoot?” D’s voice sounds strange to his own ears.  
  
Leon looks up at him, eyes sky-blue. “I’m a cop.”  
  
The tea D pours that day is black.  
  
  
 **Title: "Twas Brillig"  
Rating: G  
Word count: 200 words  
Pairings/characters: Tetsu, Chris, Ten-chan  
Notes: My "unofficial" response to The Undiscovered Country I suppose as it's 200 words instead of 100. Please enjoy!**  
  
  
  
"Twas Brillig"  
  
Tetsu scowled as Chris dragged him and Ten-chan by their arms, further past the strange mirror that had given way to small, questing hands and into the strange, thick wood it had revealed through its glass. The air here had a brackish scent to it, the trees dark and close together. The kitsune seemed completely unaffected by the tulgey gloom. Beyond pleased to be included in the adventure, he nattered on without pause, ignoring or uncaring of the toutetsu grinding his teeth on the other side of the human child.  
  
If the blasted fox had not been just as much a creature of magic as he was (and therefore a match for him), Tetsu would have quite happily bit off his head and faced whatever consequences came from it. However, when eyes of flame lit upon the trio and jaws that were definitely used for biting were licked, he was glad to have the kitsune by his side as they sprinted back through the mirror to safety, carrying Chris between them. They collapsed panting onto the floor of the pet shop, the Jabberwocky’s burbling roar echoing in their ears, angry and futile on the other side of the looking glass.

  
 **Title: "Mending Basket"  
Rating: G  
Word count: 100 words  
Pairings/characters: D, Chris, Leon (Leon/D-esque)  
Notes: Response to Challenge #183, "Needle and Thread."**  
  
  
  
"Mending Basket"  
  
D liked to think that maybe Chris was the thread that held them together, uniting the animals and himself with a tiny piece of the human world and keeping them in L.A. that much longer. He of course would be the fabric - a glittering patchwork of mystery, divine justice, and just a pinch of his own sense of mischief to add some flair.  
  
Beyond those analogies, he refused to think about the situation. But that would make Leon the needle, forcefully piercing through D and his world in a way that could be horribly painful and was most desperately needed.


End file.
